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Friday, November 12, 2010

World Champions Part I: The Crowd

Up before dawn, and out on the Bart platform just as the sun started rising. Any other day, this would have been annoying. For this particular day, it was exhilarating. No shots of the ride up. I was too excited to nap on the train, but too tired to take out my camera. Sorry.

We were early enough to beat the 8am train crowd that forced CalTrain (and I hear some Bart stations, too) to allow free ridership to cut the wait down, but we were by no means early to City Hall.

The crowd up front was already pretty dense, and the best spots were already taken. We scouted around for a while before weaving our way up to an empty spot near the jumbotron. We had to act quickly because the crowd was literally growing exponentially. See all that nice, clear grass? That wont be clear for long.

San Francisco City Hall all dressed up for the occasion. With banners.

Awesome sign. Just thought I'd share it.

World Series hat with dome. I don't know this guy. His hat was just in the right place at the right time. Truthfully, this was pretty difficult to take. The darn guy kept moving! Why don't people stay still when strange little girls with big cameras are trying to take paparazzi shots of their heads? Got me. I tried to take a shot of my brother's hat, since I knew him and all, but it wasn't quite the same.

See? Not the same. There's a lot more earage in it. I'll give my brother a shout out for the effort, though. At least he cooperated, unlike Mystery Hat Man.

At this point it was 9am, and the crowd was starting to look like this. Pretty dense, heads everywhere I looked (this is me holding my camera with my arm straight in the air. yes, my arm at it's highest height puts my camera at about the same height as most peoples' heads), but you could still see the grass in between people.

This is the crowd at 9:30. I didn't move, and I didn't zoom in. The crowd just started filling in and pushing itself closer. And it gets worse.

A view of the crowd to our left. All the people crowded in there have no idea how lucky they're about to get. In an hour, the fence in front of them will get removed and they'll all rush forward to be close to the stage. So lucky because at this point in time, they have the crappiest spots on the Civic Center.

By 9:35 we were all hungry, so my brother and I decided to venture out in search of food. We were able to view the crowd from another angle and see the craziness that was unfolding.

Remember that stretch of clear grass I showed you earlier? It's starting to fill in. The haze? Not due to the bright morning sun, if you know what I mean.

There were people sitting on crosswalk signs.

And trees.

This older gentleman struggled up the tree as the crowd around him cheered him on. He did eventually make it up there, but his last push looked pretty painful, to be honest. I was afraid he would fall out of the tree after being scraped roughly in a very sensitive area.

On a normal day, the people around would probably be mad that these hooligans were endangering themselves and the people around them by sitting on top of this bus stop. Today the people around were probably mad that they didn't get there first.

The crowd we endured while on the search for food. For real. See the people against the wall? They're not walking. They're posted up there. The line moving in the direction we were going was single file. For blocks.

This guy jumped on the back of the firetruck to wave a Giants flag. The firefighters' responses? They all laughed. I did't get to verify, but I think the fireman in the back of the cab is wearing an orange Giants shirt. I can't confirm, but wouldn't that be awesome?

Even the farmer's market was completely filled with orange and black...and there was no cooked food! We seriously considered just buying some fresh fruit and bread.

Luckily, we came upon this tamale truck just as we were about to give in to the bread and fruit idea. The line was LONG. My brother was 7-10 people behind Pointing Man.